Only Luke tells the story of the widow of Nain, whose son Jesus revived even as his body was being taken to its burial (Luke 7:11–17). Placed after the healing of the centurion’s son and before the calming of the storm, this story may have been the first instance of Jesus’ raising someone from the dead (see “List of the Miracles of Jesus” in the Appendix). According to the Lucan account, Jesus approached the city of Nain in Galilee, accompanied by a large following of disciples and others. The site of ancient Nain, is now occupied by the Arab village of Na`in some four miles southeast of Nazareth. The town has a beautiful view of the Jezreel Valley, which might have given it its name, meaning “lovely” or “charming.”[1] At the gate of this town Jesus met the funeral procession of the young man, described as “the only son (Greek, monogenēs huios) of his mother, and she was a widow” (Luke 7:12, emphasis added). Moved with compassion, Jesus told the bereft mother not to weep, reached out and touched the funeral bier, and called upon the young man, saying, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise (Greek, egerthēti)” (Luke 7:14, emphasis added). Immediately the young man sat up alive and began to speak. Continue reading →

In a culture and time period that were so male-centric, the attention that Jesus paid to women was noteworthy. All four of the gospels, and especially Luke, contain stories of Jesus healing women, teaching them, including them in his parables, and even allowing them to become part of his ministry. In addition to three individual stories about Jesus healing women, Luke also includes a summary that notes how Jesus was accompanied in his Galilean ministry by a group of women “which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities,” including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, “and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance” (Luke 8:2–3). All this is particularly striking in the cultural context of the gospels, in which Jewish men would be wary of interaction and especially any kind of physical contact with women to whom they were not related.[1] The fact that none of these women are directly named allows them to serve as types of all women whom Jesus invites to come to him and be healed. Continue reading →

The divinity of Jesus that the miracle at Cana symbolized was even more clearly demonstrated in those nature miracles that are the clearest examples of epiphanies, or direct revelations of a divine identity.[1] The twin examples of Jesus’ calming a storm on the Sea of Galilee and his later walking on that same body of water are striking illustrations of this because they employ common Near Eastern symbols of creation, which often involved a deity defeating the unruly powers of chaos, which were often represented with images of stormy seas.[2] But more importantly, because the Hebrew Bible credited YHWH, or Jehovah, with the ability to subdue the sea and tread upon the face of the waters, these New Testament miracles directly connect Jesus with the Jehovah of the Old Testament.

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 7 focuses on the miracles of Jesus, a topic that has been of great interest to me the last several years, and the results of my research and thinking on this topic have recently been published by Deseret Book as The Miracles of Jesus. Continue reading →

Another early miracle, the healing of the paralyzed man at Capernaum (KJV, “one sick of the palsy”), who was lowered through the roof by his friends, appears in all three Synoptic gospels (Mark 2:1–12; Matthew 9:1–8; Luke 5:17–26). The scene is set with Jesus teaching inside a private home, which overflowed with people who came to hear him. The only way that the paralyzed man’s friends could bring him close to Jesus was to tear up the roof of the house and lower him down through the hole. Jesus acknowledged their efforts as a sign of their faith, but before healing the man, he makes a pronouncement that causes contention with some of the Jewish scribes present: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5). Continue reading →

One of the earliest miracles recorded in the Synoptics is the cleansing of a leper (Mark 1:40–45; Matthew 8:1–4; Luke 5:12–15). Leprosy in the biblical world was not necessarily the better known Hansen’s Disease. Instead, it was a catch-all condition for a spectrum of conditions that affected the skin or even clothing and dwellings (see Leviticus 13:1–59). While some cases may have indeed involved considerable deformity and sickness, every instance of biblical leprosy had significant ritual, and hence social, implications as the sufferer was excluded from religious life and often even the company of others. Hence, the leper who first approached Jesus needed help and attention beyond simply being healed of his disease. Continue reading →

By Eric D. Huntsman. From Miracles of Jesus, 25–29, and cross-posted at http://huntsmannewtestament.blogspot.com/

The nature miracles in the gospels not only emphasize that Jesus was in fact the Creator, they also underscore that he was the one who sustained and nurtured his creation. In the Hebrew Bible, God is described as providing for both man and beast, giving them plants and fruit for food (Genesis 1:29–30). Similarly, in his own Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reaffirmed that Heavenly Father fed fowls of the air (Matthew 6:25–26). Psalm 104 taught that YHWH provides for the needs of all creation, poetically proclaiming that “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst. . . . He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. . . .These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good” (Psalm 104:10–11, 14–15, 27–28, emphases added). These references to Jehovah’s being the source of wine and bread thus serve as models for Jesus’ miracles of providing wine and bread during his ministry. Such miracles of provision are often called “gift miracles,” and two factors distinguish them from most of Jesus’ other miracles. First, while there is an apparent need in each instance, there is no direct request for aid or help, reflecting that the Lord knows that our “heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:32). Second, the way in which the miracle is actually accomplished is not clearly described, perhaps symbolizing that God’s efforts in providing for us often go unrecognized.[1]Continue reading →

Professor Brown’s Commentary is an important scholarly achievement. I really cannot say enough about it. The scholarship is extremely good, the prose is as clear as can be, the passion is appropriately Christ-focused, humble, and pious, and the confident working of so many sources, scriptures, and sayings is superb. Continue reading →

This week’s assigned lesson is Luke 4:14–32; 5; 6:12–16; and Matthew 10. With the exception of Matthew 10, the Mission Sermon, the decision to use passages from Luke makes sense inasmuch as Luke uses the term “apostle” six times as often as the other Gospels and perhaps with Acts, his next volume on the history of the apostolic church in mind, he is in many ways more sensitive to the calling and position of apostolos. Continue reading →

The very real similarities between the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20–49) have led many students of the New Testament to see these two magnificent sermons as variants of one another. Continue reading →